Far away from the lake reflects the cold light of the glacier, and to the east is the land of the Slavs, and at the foot of Edgar and his party is the former homeland of the Anglos, now mostly occupied by the Danes.

"Do you smell that?" Edgar suddenly asked, "There's a smell of blood in the air." ”

Heriward had just smelled the smell, and his shield had just been removed from his saddle and held in front of his arm, and he shook his head and replied to the king, "My horse seems to be a little uneasy, but I do not know where it comes from. ”

Edgar tried to question the Danish priests, but they all shook their heads with a look of utter disgust, when Count Otto rode up and said to the King of England, "This is the natives slaughtering their cattle in preparation for the feast of the gods." ”

Heriward understood at once, and he explained to Edgar in a voice that only those nearby could hear: "These Danes are preparing Freya's sacrifices, but such gore is always more likely to attract ravens, the followers of Odin, the father of Joel, and then these pagans will cease all activities and prepare for the season of hunting." ”

"No wonder our sentinels didn't send back any warning calls." Edgar bowed slightly, signaling the group to continue on their way, he needed to reach the Danish King's banquet hall before Christmas, which meant that they would need to cross the ruins of Hezeby in two days, and they were now less than halfway there.

On horseback, Edgar suddenly wondered if his ancestor Chedic, who had prayed to Wardan under a sacred tree full of bloody sacrifices, waited for the results of the divination, and then set sail to reach the land of Britain. This made him feel a little intimate with the surrounding mountains, and perhaps the remains of many English ancestors were now buried under this land, accompanied by their weapons and armor.

Traces of paganism can indeed be seen in this land, sometimes even some longships made of stones, probably ancient burial grounds of Danes or Angles, belonging to some princes and warriors. Just as the cold wind gradually blew these thoughts away, a commotion came from the front of the queue, as if something had happened.

Edgar tightened his cloak, and then, before he knew it, one of his hands touched the hilt of his sword.

"It looks like there's a thief." Heriward looked at the smoke rising in front of him, his voice uncertain, he didn't know the area or the people, and he was as dark and foggy as Edgar.

"It should be a Wagri." Count Otto finally spoke, "These heretics often raid on the west bank of the Elbe, and now that the local lords are in their respective halls, accompanied by all the servant warriors, these barbarians must have been suffering from an old illness and are going to take advantage of the opportunity. ”

The Earl then set his eyes on Edgar, as if waiting for the King of England to make a decision.

"Since we're here, we can't ignore it." Edgar replied briefly, and then sped forward, the knights of the guard under his command did not hesitate, and followed closely behind, and the iron-clad chains wrapped in their robes made a pleasant sound, intertwining with the sound of horses' hooves in the horns of the wind, and the killing aura stunned the Danish priests.

Count Otto looked at the back of the English galloping, the golden dragon flag in his eyes, he shouted the next order, and the Saxons also began to move forward in a group, they slowly advanced in a conical formation, these northern elite horsemen who had fought with the emperor's Franconian heroes were all stripped of their scattered faces, revealing their fierce faces, and only some unarmored squires remained to guard the baggage and the Danish priests.

As the King of England approached the ruins ahead, he found his outpost in trouble, the enemy hidden among the ruins and ramparts on all sides, and the ground littered with the corpses and wounded of the English.

This was by no means a bandit, Edgar immediately realized this, his two sentinels were strictly in accordance with the instructions to echo each other, the selected light cavalry to carry out reconnaissance, even if one way was ambushed, the other way could be timely support or get out of trouble for help, in either case, the person would definitely be arranged to send a message to the brigade. However, the scene in front of him shows that the enemy is not only not weak, but also more than just a group of people all the way!

As a former Guards cavalry officer, Edgar was naturally familiar with the examples of street fighting in the Peninsular War, and he did not hesitate to order everyone to dismount immediately and find shelter, and then he took his saber from Alfred's back, as well as the longbow and quiver that had not been used for a long time, and tapped "Alfred" to his rear.

With a spear in his hand, and receiving a round shield from Martin with the emblem of a black wolf holding a sword, the heavily armed lord marched toward the right flank of the village, followed by a dozen Peterborers.

His feet were suddenly a little slippery, and when he looked down, it turned out to be a severed skull rolling aside, and the blood stained the surrounding ground a little black. A young Englishman immediately began to vomit, and his comrades looked uneasy.

"It's nothing, it's not our people, it's probably the villagers here." Hereward whispered to his men to comfort him, then he took off his helmet and looked out for the enemy.

The frost of the end of the year caused the warriors to shrink into a ball, and these East Anglia Sain heard a sharp crack in the sky, and an arrow was shot from an impossible angle, and it was stuck in the cheek of their lord.

Peterborough Sain raised their shields and surrounded Hereward in the middle, the lord's face was bleeding and half of his cheeks were blurred, and the young Sain seemed to be ashamed of what he had just done, and was about to step forward to deal with the wound, but was stopped by his companions clapping his hands.

"Are you crazy? Pulling out an arrow like this now will kill an adult. ”

The arrow was of very poor quality, and it looked almost the same as the one a hunter shoots at a deer in the forest, except that the position where Heriward had been shot was so dangerous that they had to carry him back to the back of the village, and they did not dare to show his face the whole time, and the sneak attacker did not fire another arrow.